LaunchRepoShort answer
- Product Hunt: schedule for 12:01 am Pacific Time if nothing else ties you down. The homepage runs on a 24-hour Pacific cycle, so that slot gives people the whole day to find you. You can schedule up to one month ahead.
- Day of the week: Product Hunt itself says the best day is the one you are most prepared for. Weekdays draw bigger companies, and weekend launches get 15% more “Visit” clicks according to Product Hunt.
- Hacker News: there is no official timing rule. In our sample of 44,624 Show HN posts, the share reaching 10+ points ranged only from 8% (Wednesday) to 9.4% (Sunday) across weekdays. The hour mattered a little more, and more posts compete in the busiest hours.
- The best plan is simple: pick a date on which you and your team are online for the first hours, and convert the start time below.
Time zone planner
Pick a date and two time zones: yours, and your audience’s or your co-founder’s. The planner converts Product Hunt’s launch slot and the Hacker News time blocks from our data set. It runs in your browser with the time-zone rules built into it; nothing is sent anywhere.
| Time zone | July | January |
|---|---|---|
| Pacific Time America/Los_Angeles | 12:01 AM (UTC−7) | 12:01 AM (UTC−8) |
| Eastern Time America/New_York | 03:01 AM (UTC−4) | 03:01 AM (UTC−5) |
| Brasilia Standard Time America/Sao_Paulo | 04:01 AM (UTC−3) | 05:01 AM (UTC−3) |
| United Kingdom Time Europe/London | 08:01 AM (UTC+1) | 08:01 AM (UTC) |
| Central European Time Europe/Berlin | 09:01 AM (UTC+2) | 09:01 AM (UTC+1) |
| Türkiye Standard Time Europe/Istanbul | 10:01 AM (UTC+3) | 11:01 AM (UTC+3) |
| India Standard Time Asia/Kolkata | 12:31 PM (UTC+5:30) | 01:31 PM (UTC+5:30) |
| China Standard Time Asia/Shanghai | 03:01 PM (UTC+8) | 04:01 PM (UTC+8) |
| Japan Standard Time Asia/Tokyo | 04:01 PM (UTC+9) | 05:01 PM (UTC+9) |
| Korean Standard Time Asia/Seoul | 04:01 PM (UTC+9) | 05:01 PM (UTC+9) |
| Australian Eastern Time Australia/Sydney | 05:01 PM (UTC+10) | 07:01 PM (UTC+11) |
Europe and the US switch clocks on different weekends in March and in October/November, so for a few weeks a year the gap is one hour smaller. The planner above handles those days exactly.
Product Hunt: the clock and the day
Product Hunt answers the timing question on two of its own launch-guide pages. The clock is fixed; the day is up to you.
The clock: when a launch day starts
Quotes are the platforms’ own English wording, copied from the pages listed under Sources and checked on September 30, 2026.
| Rule | Official wording | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Default slot | 12:01 am Pacific Time is the best time to launch for makers that are planning ahead and don't have limitations or other opportunities | Without a reason to do otherwise, schedule for one minute past midnight Pacific. |
| Daily cycle | The homepage runs on a 24-hour cycle based on Pacific Standard Time | Every launch day is one Pacific calendar day, whatever time zone you live in. |
| Why the early slot | Posting at 12:01am PST gives people a full 24 hours to view your product | Posting at the start of the day gives your launch the full 24 hours on the homepage. |
| Scheduling | you can schedule your post up to 1 month ahead | You can prepare everything and set the date up to one month in advance. |
| Outside the US | If you’re a European, Asian, or African startup, there could be a benefit to launching earlier in the day | Launching from Europe, Asia or Africa can make an early start even more useful: 12:01 am Pacific falls into your working day. |
| Ranking inputs | based on the number of upvotes, comments, time since submission, and other factors | Time since submission is one of the factors, next to upvotes and comments, so the hour you post plays into how the day unfolds. |
One detail: Product Hunt’s pages say “Pacific Time” in one place and “Pacific Standard Time” in another. The planner uses the Pacific time zone as clocks show it there (daylight time in summer). The scheduler in your Product Hunt account shows the exact time it will use, so confirm it there.
The day: what Product Hunt says about weekdays
| Rule | Official wording | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Best day | The best day to launch is the day on which you're most prepared | Readiness beats the calendar: the day you are fully prepared is your best day. |
| No shortcut | there is no golden-ticket answer that will get you straight to the top of the leaderboard | Product Hunt itself says there is no day or hour that guarantees the top of the leaderboard. |
| Weekdays | We tend to see larger companies launch (along with solo makers) on the weekdays since that follows normal business hours | Weekdays follow business hours and draw bigger companies, so you share the homepage with them. |
| Weekends | products launched on the weekend get 15% more “Visit” button clicks than those on weekdays | Weekends suit smaller teams, side projects and personal apps, and Product Hunt reports more “Visit” clicks for them. |
| Bottom line | Ultimately, the best time to launch your product is when you’re ready to do so | Choose the moment you are ready, then use the clock above to start it well. |
Hacker News: what the data shows
For Hacker News we reuse the public Show HN sample from our Show HN guide: all 44,624 Show HN posts from September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026, collected through the public HN Search API on September 30, 2026. We count a post as noticed when it reached 10 or more points (8.4% of all posts).
Hacker News publishes no timing rule. The Show HN guidelines and the site guidelines, both checked on the date below, say nothing about the day or hour you post.
Weekday by time of day
| Day (UTC) | 00:00–03:59 | 04:00–07:59 | 08:00–11:59 | 12:00–15:59 | 16:00–19:59 | 20:00–23:59 | All hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 7.5%617 posts | 7.4%650 posts | 7.1%938 posts | 8.7%1,907 posts | 9%1,722 posts | 7.8%1,013 posts | 8.2%6,847 posts |
| Tuesday | 6.8%584 posts | 7.6%661 posts | 6.2%1,078 posts | 8.2%2,795 posts | 10.6%1,964 posts | 8.5%1,011 posts | 8.4%8,093 posts |
| Wednesday | 7.1%592 posts | 5.6%627 posts | 5.2%957 posts | 8.8%2,408 posts | 9.8%1,763 posts | 7.8%985 posts | 8%7,332 posts |
| Thursday | 8.1%615 posts | 5.1%630 posts | 7.1%973 posts | 8.8%2,144 posts | 9.4%1,651 posts | 9.6%977 posts | 8.4%6,990 posts |
| Friday | 8.2%573 posts | 7.4%597 posts | 5.5%874 posts | 7.7%1,598 posts | 9%1,373 posts | 10.2%873 posts | 8.1%5,888 posts |
| Saturday | 8.2%499 posts | 5.3%451 posts | 6.5%682 posts | 7.6%1,085 posts | 9.4%1,007 posts | 10.4%845 posts | 8.2%4,569 posts |
| Sunday | 11%446 posts | 7.5%545 posts | 9.9%741 posts | 9.1%1,206 posts | 8.5%1,122 posts | 11.2%845 posts | 9.4%4,905 posts |
| All days | 8%3,926 posts | 6.6%4,161 posts | 6.7%6,243 posts | 8.5%13,143 posts | 9.5%10,602 posts | 9.3%6,549 posts | 8.4%44,624 posts |
What stands out
- Weekdays barely differ: from 8% on Wednesday to 9.4% on Sunday. Even for Sunday, the 95% range runs from 8.7% to 10.3%.
- The time of day shows a clearer pattern: 16:00–19:59 UTC did best (9.5%) and 04:00–07:59 UTC least well (6.6%).
- Volume differs far more than success: 13,143 posts landed in the busiest block (12:00–15:59 UTC) and 3,926 in the quietest (00:00–03:59 UTC). More posts means more competition for the same page.
Correlation is not a recommendation
These numbers describe what happened to posts, not what posting at a certain hour causes. Who posts at which hour differs: a US company posting at its lunchtime is not the same as a solo maker posting after work in Asia.
A higher share in one cell can come from the kind of projects posted then, from fewer competing posts, or from chance. The differences are a few percentage points on a base of about 8.4%.
Use the data to rule out a worry, not to chase a slot: no weekday is a bad day for Show HN, and a strong project with a clear title matters more than the hour.
Method: same 44,624 posts as the Show HN guide, grouped by the UTC weekday and hour of the post’s creation time. Shares with 95% Wilson intervals; no post was left out.
How to pick your day
Four questions settle the date faster than any data set.
- Who has to be online?Launch when you and anyone who answers comments can be there for the first hours. On Product Hunt that means 12:01 am Pacific converted to your time; the planner above shows it.
- Where is your audience?Set the second time zone to your main market and check that the launch runs through their working day or evening.
- What else is fixed?A press date, a newsletter, a conference or a release can beat the default slot. Product Hunt’s own example is to launch when a press embargo lifts.
- Are you ready?Tagline, images, first comment and a working signup come first. If they are not ready, move the date; the clock will still be there next week.
Sources
Every rule and figure on this page comes from one of these pages. We read all of them on September 30, 2026; the middle column shows a last-update date only where the page itself gives one.
| Page | Last updated (per page) | Checked by us |
|---|---|---|
| Product Hunt Launch Guide: FAQ | no date shown | |
| Launch Guide: Preparing for launch | no date shown | |
| Launch Guide: How Product Hunt works | no date shown | |
| Show HN guidelines | no date shown | |
| Hacker News Guidelines | no date shown | |
| HN Search API (Algolia), Show HN posts | no date shown |
FAQ
- What time does Product Hunt reset?
- Product Hunt’s homepage runs on a 24-hour cycle in Pacific Time, so a new launch day starts at midnight Pacific. Product Hunt recommends 12:01 am Pacific as the default launch slot. The planner on this page shows that moment in your own time zone for any date.
- What is the best day to launch on Product Hunt?
- Product Hunt says the best day is the day you are most prepared. Weekdays bring more launches from bigger companies; weekends suit smaller teams and side projects, and Product Hunt reports 15% more “Visit” clicks for weekend launches.
- What is the best day to post on Hacker News?
- In our sample of 44,624 Show HN posts, the share reaching 10+ points only ranged from 8% to 9.4% across weekdays. No weekday stands out as bad. The hour of day showed a slightly larger difference, but that is a correlation, not a guarantee.
- Should I launch on Product Hunt and Hacker News on the same day?
- You can, but each needs you in the comments. Product Hunt’s day starts at 12:01 am Pacific and Hacker News has no fixed day. Staggering them by a few days lets you answer both audiences properly.
- Does daylight saving time change the Product Hunt launch time?
- The launch slot stays at 12:01 am Pacific, but Pacific Time is UTC−7 in summer and UTC−8 in winter, and other countries switch on different dates. Pick your date in the planner to get the exact local time.